Tag: Albert Strange

New edition of John Leather’s Albert Strange now available from Lodestar

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A new edition of the long out-of-print book Albert Strange — Yacht Designer and Artist, by John Leather and members of The Albert Strange Association, is now available from Lodestar Books and all good maritime bookstores.

Strange was seminal figure in the development of the small cruising yacht, and the book includes many of his design drawings, together with newly located works of art, delightful illustrated cruising yarns from century-old editions of Yachting Monthly of a century ago, and more recent boat photos. And there’s also a foreword by Iain Oughtred.

The book is in a large format, with 224 pages and 12 pages of plates, and costs just £20 post-free in the UK (a little more to other countries).

The ASA owns the copyright of the book, and will receives the author royalty on all sales.

Ernest Dade’s book of drawings Sail and Oar reprinted by Lodestar Books

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Ernest Dade 1 Ernest Dade 2

These lovely drawings by the artist Ernest Dade feature in a new volume from Lodestar Books – and if you’re in need of a gift or two it’s available in time for Christmas at a very reasonable £12!

As an artist, Dade trained with Albert Strange and shared his master’s passion for sailing and sailing craft. First published in 1933, the book Sail and Oar contains 100 of his lively and also historically accurate sketches, accompanied by some striking captions.

I particularly like one that reads: ‘The old smacks brought a very powerful odour with them when they returned after six or eight weeks at sea. They could be smelt some miles away.’

One of the local fishermen of the time said this of Dade’s collection of drawings: ‘These pictures… are true in every way. Mr Ernest Dade lived the life, knew the men, and sailed in the various craft he draws so well. It is a record of things passed away.’

Read more about Ernest Dade’s Sail and Oar at the Lodestar Books website.

 

Albert Strange waits for the tide

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Albert Strange’s drawing of Grimsby Docks’s famous landmark – the Venetian Tower

Albert Strange writing about his North Sea cruise of 1895:

‘I went on rowing and got a little beyond Kilnsea before it was evident that no further progress was being made. So it was ‘down anchor’ and prepare for a night at sea, or at least to wait until midnight and go into the Humber by the ordinary channel. I sounded and found about four fathoms, which would leave me ample water at low tide, let go anchor, and started the stove. It was now about 6.30 p.m, a fine evening but the glass slowly falling and the surf beating heavily on the shore some 300yds. inside me.

‘After dinner I sat in the cockpit and smoked my pipe. Whilst so occupied I saw two or three people on the beach waving. Of course I could not reply, which seemed to distress them, for they waved still more vigorously. Then they tried to launch a small boat, which was promptly capsized in the surf. It seemed very kind of them to take all this trouble, and I thanked them, though I doubt if they heard me… ‘

Read more at the Old Gaffer’s Association’s Sailing By website.